The present invention relates to a poultry feeder, more specifically to an adjustable poultry feeder wherein the position of the feeder bowl relative to a feeder tower, or down tube may be readily adjusted to control the amount of feed entering the feeder bowl. The invention also relates to a poultry feeder in which the bowl, the grill and the adjusting collar are all rotatable relative to the feeder tower to prevent damage to the poultry feeder when contacted by the birds during feeding.
Poultry feeding systems are well known in the art, a typical example of which is illustrated in FIG. 1. Such poultry feeding systems typically include a feed supply hopper 10 with a delivery pipe 12 communicating with the bottom of the hopper 10. In known fashion, within the delivery pipe 12 is a helical conveyor, driven by motor 14, which conveys the granular feed from the hopper 10 and into the plurality of poultry feeders 16a-16d. Each of the poultry feeders 16a-16d has a feeder bowl into which the feed passes, and a protective grill that enables the birds to obtain feed from the feeder bowl, but prevents the birds from entering the feeder bowl.
When the birds are very young, the poultry feeders 16a-16d may be located on, or adjacent to the floor (not shown). As the birds mature and grow, the entire feeding system is raised above floor level to enable the birds to readily obtain feed from the feeder bowls. Typically, a series of support wires 18 is used to support the poultry feeder and the entire poultry feeder is raised to a desired level.
It is also known to support the poultry feeders 16a-16d by attaching the feeder tower, or down tube, to the delivery pipe 12, openings in the delivery pipe 12 communicating with a feed tube inlet of the feeder tower. As the feeder system is raised, the relative positions between the feeder tower and the bowl may be increased to increase the amount of feed that may enter the bowl, thereby allowing the mature birds to obtain a greater amount of feed. However, the systems utilized for adjusting the relative positions between the feeder tower and the bowl tend to be overly complex and, therefore, inherently unreliable. The systems also require excessive manual manipulation of the various elements of the feeders, resulting in an excessive amount of time necessary to adjust all of the poultry feeders. Another drawback of the known poultry feeders is that contact of the feeder bowl or grill by the mature birds may cause damage to the adjustment mechanism.
A poultry feeder is disclosed having an adjustment mechanism which adjusts the relative positions between the feeder tower and the feeder bowl to control the amount of feed entering the bowl that is readily adjustable, and, at the same time, enables the feeder bowl, the grill and the adjustment collar to freely rotate relative to the feeder tower to prevent damage to the adjustment mechanism when the grill and/or the bowl is contacted by the feeding birds.
A lower edge of an adjusting collar rests on a shoulder portion of the feeder tower when the poultry feeder is suspended above floor level. The relative positions between a bottom of the feeder tower and the feeder bowl is adjustable in a plurality of discreet positions. Each of the plurality of discreet positions provides a different clearance between the bottom of the feeder tower and the bowl, thus controlling the amount of feed which may enter the bowl from the feeder tower.
The collar has a plurality of upwardly opening notches formed in an outer surface, which are engaged by at least one protrusion on the hub of the grill. A rim of the grill is attached to a peripheral portion of the bowl. Thus, by positioning the at least one protrusion of the hub of the grill into one of the plurality of upwardly opening notches, the distance between a lower edge of the collar, which rests on a shoulder of the feeder tower, and the bowl may be increased or decreased. This, in turn, increases or decreases the distance between a bottom of the feed tower and the bowl to thereby control the flow of feed into the bowl. In an adjusted position, the collar, the grill and the bowl are freely rotatable relative to the feeder tower.
In order to adjust the feeding position of the feeder, the bowl, grill and collar are manually raised relative to the feeder tower, bringing protrusions on the feeder tower into contact with protrusions on the inner surface of the collar. Such contact in the raised position prevents relative rotation between the collar and the feeding tower. The raised position also disengages the protrusions on the hub of the grill from the notches in the collar, enabling the grill and bowl to be rotated relative to the collar. Such rotation enables the relative positions of the collar and the grill to be changed, thereby enabling the protrusions on the hub of the grill to engage different notches in the collar. Bottoms of adjacent notches are located at different distances from an upper edge of the collar, whereby engagement of the protrusion on the hub of the grill into different notches adjusts the position of the bowl relative to the bottom of the collar.